1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network managing system, and more particularly to a network managing system for a network with a plurality of layers which has a user interface for managing agents of the plurality of layers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional hierarchical network managing system, a network is managed by configuration of a sub-manager layer and an integrated manager layer. Alternatively, a network is managed by configuration of an element management layer, a network management layer, and a service management layer which are formed in accordance with the ITU'S (Internation Telecommunication Union) TMN (Telecommunications Management Network) in layer structure. Also, each of the layers has managers and agents, and the manager provides a user interface with an operator.
A conventional example of the hierarchical network managing system is proposed in, for example, Japanese Laid Open Patent Disclosure (JP-A-Heisei 7-226777) in which a communication service between the integrated manager and the sub-manager is performed based on the IAB management standard. Thus, the structure of the sub-manager is simplified thereby for simplifying the whole structure of the managing system.
The above conventional example of the hierarchical network managing system will be described below with reference to FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional hierarchical network managing system is composed of an integrated manager 50 as an upper layer manager, and sub-managers 10a and 10b as lower layer managers and agents 20a to 20d as lower layer agents for hierarchically managing a network. For purpose of operating the agent 20, the integrated manager 50 has a path passing through the sub-manager 10 and a direct path without passing through the sub-manager 10. Also, the integrated manager 50 is equipped with a graphical user interface 60.
However, the conventional example of the hierarchical network managing system has the following problems.
(1) The first problem is that the upper layer user interface and the lower layer user interface cannot cooperate with each other in the conventional hierarchical network managing system described in the above Japanese Laid Open Patent Disclosure (JP-A-Heisei 7-226777). The reason is that the user interface for the user to operate an agent from the sub-manager is not provided in the above conventional hierarchical network managing system.
(2) The second problem is that the integrated manager is always required to operate a sub-manager, in the conventional hierarchical network managing system mentioned in the above Japanese Laid Open Patent Disclosure (JP-A-Heisei 7-226777). The reason is that in the above conventional hierarchical network managing system, processing to the sub-manager can be performed only from the integrated manager, and there is not a user interface which is directly connected to the sub-manager.